These are great! Kind of similar to some of Dali's work in that everything is rendered accurately and realistically, no matter how bizarre. What I like is that everything seems so familiar... bento boxes and mass-produced bathrooms, the schools and the ticket gates. Just fantastic.

Eeesh, these really bring out the darker side of Japanese life, or more specifically, the darker side of consumerist/corporate life in Japan's big cities. There really are some poignant points here and I can't take my eyes off the pictures. Great find!

Darren Mitton

Not random at all - you are just unable to see the symbolism. ...Both the Mona Lisa & Van Gogh were mostly portraits, not true art that makes a statement. The most artistic thing about Van Gogh was his brush-strokes. Check out Francis Bacon or Goya if you need a crash course.

Tiffany

Actually, these make a lot of sense. I can break down the ideals behind these paintings pretty simply. I believe they are commenting on the materialism of modern society(assuming namely Americans), and how in a sense we have become our possessions.. It goes deeper than that, but in my opinion that's the gist.

AoLong

I suggest a "positive" side to it... Not sure if it cuts down that evenly or cleanly, but here it is:

Seems more real than reality itself in some way.

Well, I must say it seems to take all of my emotions and sense(s) of self and blend them in some sort of picturesque blender that makes me smell a peculiar smell... a kind of smell that makes me remember a kind of reality I'm "not supposed to remember"... what gets me is how POSITIVE some of the feelings are...

The most positive one for me is the last one, with its bright-sky spaciousness, the way consciousness seems to surround the scene like an invisible velvet blanket, and the way the personification of what looks like a static structure (school) and unpalatable process (being put "through" school) seems made into something somehow transcendentally positive. It is the spirit of the children which enable it.

It is the spirit of the children which enables all the suffering to be endured.

It is their playfulness that pervades objects, enabling them to have lives of their own.

It is their dignity that reveals how the grown-ups have lost theirs, becoming objects and process linkages.

But there is some bright, kool-aid tangerine light that shines over it all... soothing it.

SteamAnt

Very much touching... just a truth of our life. The pleasure of pain is when pictured so much in details. The form of pure beauty, the contents rotten flesh of existence. Reminds me of Bosh, Giger, and Beksinski (http://beksinski.republika.pl/10.htm).

Randall

Sarah

These are shockingly sad. A life on a conveyer belt. A trapped soul as part of the machine. Thats all we are. Thats all the artist was. This is what he saw everyday until he was hit by a train (possibly suicide) at the age of 32. Along with every other person who kils themselves in the country with the highest suicide rate in the world.

These pictures express the horror they have to escape and they are indeed real art.

AoLong

Darren Mitton

Very moving. Speaks a lot about asian cultures pressure to pick a career in your preteens & consumption. And says alot about loss of identity and personal-space in a culture obsessed with practicality also..

Ice

Esteban

Marko

Big mistake of who gave this title to this post. "Surrealistic paintings.." Come on, this painter born 30 or 40 years after surrealistic time, when this was already fade. Not even late-surrealistic we can call this screens. Not arguing the merit of this painter -wich seems to be great- but with who "wrote" (or just copy/pasted some images under the "surrealistic" label in a lack of another name) this post.

Eyechild

I think these paintings capture both the surrealism of the 40's and also the reality of life now - with more graphic violence being portrayed on t.v. and video games. It was bound to happen....great stuff...love the phone booth one.

AoLong

mint

but it sums up my convoluted emotions brewing inside... as rain passionately kiss my window; making me miss home-- and all emotions both familiar and grotesque; pushing at the same time stopping the urge to go out and dance under the weeping sky.

Yyyyyyyyyyy

AoLong

Seems more real than reality itself in some way... oh wait a minute... that's what "surreal" means... yes.

Well, I must say it seems to take all of my emotions and sense(s) of self and blend them in some sort of picturesque blender that makes me smell a peculiar smell... a kind of smell that makes me remember a kind of reality I'm "not supposed to remember"... what gets me is how POSITIVE some of the feelings are...

The most positive one for me is the last one, with its bright-sky spaciousness, the way consciousness seems to surround the scene like an invisible velvet blanket, and the way the personification of what looks like a static structure (school) and unpalatable process (being put "through" school) seems made into something somehow transcendentally positive. It is the spirit of the children which enable it.

It is the spirit of the children which enables all the suffering to be endured.

It is their playfulness that pervades objects, enabling them to have lives of their own.

It is their dignity that reveals how the grown-ups have lost theirs, becoming objects and process linkages.

But there is some bright, kool-aid tangerine light that shines over it all... soothing it.

icarus

It doesn't help that the faces all sport lifeless eyes. I'm a big fan of Ishida's works before I bothered to find out his name. I can somehow relate to some of his pieces that it's terrifying. Slaving away for a job that you don't like, keeping up with my parents' and society's expectations that living has somehow become a burden...

My favorite was the microscope job panelists. Brings back memories of how hard it was job hunting.